HMAS Success celebrates 32 years of service

HMAS Success ship's company celebrate her 32nd birthday on the flight deck during their 2018 South East Asia deployment.

Ship’s company of the Royal Australian Navy’s ‘Battle Tanker’ HMAS Success have celebrated the ship’s 32 years of outstanding service to Australia while deployed to South East Asia.

Commanding Officer, Commander Grant Zilko cut the cake during a morning assembly to mark the occasion as Success sailed to her next port of call. Sailors and officers took a moment to join for a brew, piece of cake and group photo on the flight deck.

Built at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney New South Wales, Success was commissioned into service on 23 April 1986 and has established a proud and longstanding history in the RAN. Success has been awarded Honours for her participation in the 1991 Gulf War and INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce deployed to East Timor in 1999.

In 2014, Success was deployed to assist in efforts to locate missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370 in the Southern Indian Ocean andwas awarded the 2014 Gloucester Cup for the most outstanding unit in the Fleet.

Following the decommissioning of HMAS Darwin in 2017, Success was recently passed the honour of 'First Lady of the Fleet' signifying her as the eldest ship in the RAN.

With decommissioning planned for 2019 Success’ crew savoured the opportunity to thank her for the service and good memories along the way.

Success is currently deployed to South East Asia and will visit a number of ports in the region

She will join HMA Ships Anzac, Toowoomba for approximately three months, strengthening partnerships and developing interoperability with close partner nations.